By Mark Duff BBC News, Milan

Nearly all Italians prefer bottled water to the piped stuff

The patriarch of Venice is urging Catholics in the Italian city to give up bottled water for the Christian fasting season of Lent.

Angelo Cardinal Scola wants them to donate the money saved to a water pipeline project in Thailand.

He is being backed by the mayor, who says he drinks only tap water and calls bottled water an unnecessary luxury.

Some 100,000 families can now expect to get a carafe from a local water firm to keep their tap water fridge-fresh.

Nearly all Italians drink bottled water rather than the piped stuff.

The industry is worth an estimated 3.2bn euros (�2.38bn) a year to the Italian economy.

Environmentalists do not like bottled water - partly because of the impact of discarded plastic bottles, but also because of the quantity of greenhouse gases produced in its preparation.